Red Sky in the Morning
by AlexJanna
Summary: Part of Storms in Hell arc in Antichrist!Winchesters verse. A young Dean and Sam play hooky in Hell to watch a lightning storm.


**Title**: Red Sky of the Morning

**Author:** Alexjanna

**Fandom**: Supernatural

**Pairing**: Sam(8)/Dean(12)

**Series**: Storms in Hell Arc (Antichrist!Winchesters Verse)

**Rating**: PG

**Genre:** AU

**Word** **Count**: 2,179

**Theme Song:** Journey – Wheel in the Sky (link in profile)

**Warnings**: wee!chesters, wincest, fluff, cuddling, light kissing, antichrist!boys

**Summary**: A young Dean and Sam play hooky in Hell to watch a lightning storm.

**A/N:**Part of my pre-Footprints on Earth arc to my Antichrist!Winchester verse.

* * *

The air was hot and dry; the ground was rough and black like volcanic rock. The sky was blood red shot through with deep orange and fiery yellow. Hell wasn't ugly by any stretch of the imagination. In fact it could be rather beautiful at times; mountains of black jagged volcanic rock, gorges that flowed with magma and lighting that lit up the sky with purples and blues and whites.

No, it wasn't all that ugly. Just inhospitable, dangerous, and hostile to the nth degree.

Dean stared up at the lightning storm raging overhead and wished that just once it would actually rain, like it did on Earth. He couldn't really remember what rain was like, but his dad had told him about it. About how his mother had liked to sit and watch as the storms rolled in and the rain sprinkled over the earth making little pools and ponds everywhere.

A high peel of laughter pulled him from his thoughts and he turned his eyes from the sky to see his little brother somersaulting his way over the unforgiving ground.

"Sammy!" He shouted after the eight year old. "Be careful!"

"Deeeaaan!" Sam whined back as he flipped onto his back and stared up at the sky. "I am!"

Shaking his head, Dean walked over to where his brother was spread eagled on the black ground and stopped at his head to stare down at him with a smirk on his lips. "Are you? Really?"

Sam huffed at him barely concealing a smile of his own and reached up to tug at his trousers insistently. "Come lay down with me."

Dean groaned and shoved his hands in his pockets. "Come on, Sammy. You know Dad wants us back in time for the council meeting."

The younger boy scrunched up his nose in obvious distaste even as he wrapped a small hand around his brother's ankle and gave it a gentle squeeze. "But those things are _so_ boring." He protested. "Can't we skip? Just this once?"

Huffing a bit in amusement, Dean flexed his calf muscle knowing Sam would be able to feel it against his palm. "Sam, we skip them all the time."

He got a blinding smile for his effort. "Well, then no one will miss us if we skip this one too."

Somehow Dean couldn't really fault his logic and he gently shook off his brother's hand before he crouched down on the ground and spread himself out over the warm rock next to Sam.

"Fine, fine." He muttered even as he tucked his hands behind his head for some cushioning. "We can skip, but just this once." He warned in exaggerated seriousness.

Sam gave him a blinding smile before his face smoothed into a very grave frown and he nodded. "Of course." He agreed, but he couldn't keep it up for long and his smile returned. He grinned, satisfied as he curled closer to his brother and rested his head on Dean's shoulder.

"Can we watch the lightning storm?" Sam asked, his voice quieter, calming now that he was pressed bodily against the one person in the world he felt completely safe with.

"That's what we're doing already, isn't it?" Dean answered just as quietly as he tilted his head enough to press his lips to Sam's forehead. His brother had always radiated heat, even in Hell his body felt almost too warm all the time. Dean supposed it came from his little kid metabolism.

Then again, maybe it was just Sammy. Dean was only twelve and his skin didn't burn like Sam's did sometimes.

"It's pretty." Sam said, wrapping one arm around Dean's chest and hooking one leg with Dean's.

Dean watched as a deep red cloud split open with a bolt of sharp violet lightning. He huffed out a sigh and nuzzled his nose deeper into Sam's bangs. "Yeah. I wish we could see one of these on Earth."

"Mm." Sam sighed contentedly and closed his eyes for a moment as he rubbed his cheek against his brother's chest and listened to his steady heartbeat over the rumbling of thunder. "Tell me what storms are like on Earth, Dean. Like the ones Mom liked to watch."

"I've told you about them before, Sammy." Dean reminded him, voice soft and slow in his relaxed state, the warmth radiating off of his brother lulling him into a half doze despite the storm raging above them.

"I know." Sam muttered pressing his face in Dean's shirt and inhaling his scent mixed with ozone from the lightning and a light hint of sulfur that permeated everything in Hell. "But I want to hear it again. Dad never talks about stuff like that."

It was true, Dean thought as he closed his eyes and untangled one of his hands from the other so he could wrap it around Sam and rub up and down his back comfortingly. After Mary had died John had shut down in more than one way. He never talked about his lost love and the only things his youngest knew about the mother he never got to love were the few precious things his eldest could remember from the four short years they'd been happy as a family. On Earth.

"Alright." Dean conceded without much of a fight. He liked telling Sam stories about their mom just as much as Sam liked hearing them. "On Earth when a storm comes it's not like it is here."

"How is it?" Sam asked his eyes open once more and staring up at the angry roiling sky as he listened to the comforting rhythm of his brother's voice.

"Well, first the sky starts out blue, a dark almost gray blue." Dean says. "Then it darkens as these huge billowy purple gray clouds start to like roll across the sky."

Sam made a little noise in the back of his throat and squeezed Dean's chest until he was pressed as flush against his side as he could get. Dean answered the move by moving his free hand from behind his head to wrap it around Sam as well, returning the favor. He stroked the other hand up Sam's back until it was tangle in his thick unruly hair, his fingers moving in little comforting circles against his little brother's scalp.

"As the clouds tumble and roll across the sky everything gets covered in a blanket of gray. Like the sun is covered, but you can still see everything perfectly." He tightened his hold on his brother and continued. "The wind picks up and the air gets cool and suddenly you can hear it; the thunder."

"What's it sound like?"

"Like giants." Dean answered immediately, voice hushed. "Giants marching and stomping so far away you can't see them. And it keeps getting louder the closer the clouds get." He paused, eyes turning once again to the roiling sky above them. "Then the lightning starts to peek into the sky like the sparks of a fire.

"It arcs up from the ground to pierce through the clouds and it shoots down from the sky to stab into the earth."

"Cool." Sam breathed in complete awe of the picture his brother was painting despite the fact that he'd heard it a hundred times before.

Dean let out a little chuckle. "Yeah. It's pretty awesome."

"What else?" Sam urged, eyes still glued to the lightning above them in the bloody colored sky.

"Well, the thunder gets so loud you can feel the air squeeze you tight with it and the ground shakes beneath your feet. The lightning sounds like when Lucifer crashes into the sides of his cage and you can start to feel the heat from every strike as they get closer." Sam gave an involuntary shiver at that.

They always stayed far away from Lucifer's cage. It was no place for them or any demon really. No one liked to go there when Lucifer got so enraged with his captivity that the adamant encasing him quaked and made sounds like the very earth was splitting open from his anger.

Dean pressed a comforting kiss to Sam's forehead, but he didn't stop his story. "Then the rain starts to fall. Only a few drops at first, then it starts to pour. It soaks into the earth until the ground is sticky with mud and little ponds start to fill, the raindrops making little ripples on their surfaces."

"What does it feel like, Dean? To have rain fall on you?" Sam asked, his voice hushed and wistful. He's never been on Earth before, but he knew that Dean had; when their mother was still alive. Dean had lived on Earth until Sam had been born.

Dean frowned at that, trying to remember exactly. "Cold." He finally said. "It's cold and wet, like when Dad finally forces you to take a bath."

"Hey!" Sam huffed in annoyance and poked his brother in the side even as Dean grinned down at him and squeezed him back. Sam gave up his punishment and returned to his previous calm. "Is that really what it feels like? Cold and wet."

Dean settled as well and returned to staring up at the sky. The storm was starting to die down now and they should be heading home soon. Their dad will be upset with them for missing the meeting as it is.

"Nah." Dean says. "It's cold, yeah, but it's nice. It feels softer than the water down here. It drips down your face and over your eyelashes, off your nose and it tastes sweet. Almost a little bit like sugar water."

Sam sighed, firmly snuggled against his brother. "That sounds nice. I wish I could see a real Earth thunderstorm."

"Me too." Dean murmured and pressed another kiss to Sam's forehead. He really wanted Sam to see one. When they get old enough, he'll take Sam up to Earth and show him a real storm, just like the ones their mom liked. He'd promised Sam that a long time ago.

"Come on, Sammy." He finally said after a long moment of just lying cuddled on the warm ground watching as the last bits of lightning faded into the red sky. "We have to get back or Dad's going to be really pissed."

Sam pouted and groaned, but still he let Dean shuffle and push and prod him until he was on his feet once more.

Seeing his brother's less than pleased expression, Dean tugged him into his arms once more and hugged him tight to his chest. "I promise, Sammy, when we grow up I'll take you to Earth and you can see a real rainstorm."

Sighing in contentment, Sam relaxed into Dean's hold and wrapped his arms around his waist, hugging him back. "I know, Dean. I can't wait to see it with you." He looked up at his big brother and grinned.

Dean smiled back at him and leaned down the few scant inches until he could press his lips to Sam's, kissing him soft and warm and happy. Sam stretched on his tip-toes to straighten out his neck and pressed his lips against Dean's in return, his small hands clutching at the back of his brother's shirt.

They parted and Dean pressed another light kiss to the apple of Sam's cheek before pulling back further and turning them in the direction of home, or Pandemonium as it were.

"Come on, Sammy. Let's get going."

They walked with their arms around each other leaving the storm and a few more moments of their childhood behind.

* * *

Sam smiled softly to himself as he watched the dark gray clouds roll across the sky. He leaned back against Dean's chest and treaded their fingers together over his stomach giving Dean's a loving squeeze.

The thunder was just starting to rumble in the distance and the first flashes of lightning could be seen behind the clouds, not yet strong enough to break through them. It has been a few years since they broke out of Hell to ride the Impala over the highways of Earth, to savor what little of their freedom they could grab and Sam has yet to grow even remotely tired of thunderstorms.

"It's really beautiful." He murmured as he snuggled further into Dean's arms, his legs stretched out across the hood of the Impala crossed at the ankle. "Don't you think, Dean?"

Dean squeezed his thighs a bit on either side of Sam's hips and nuzzled his nose into the junction of Sam's neck and shoulder inhaling the scent of ozone, humid air, and Sam. "Yeah. It is."

Sam turned his head just enough to capture his brother's lips in a slow, soft kiss before he turned back to the approaching storm, his head leaning back to rest on Dean's shoulder. "Thanks, Dean." He said, voice hushed and deep.

"For what?" Dean asked as he pressed another kiss to the side of Sam's neck.

"For keeping your promise." Sam answered just as the first few drops of rain fell to land on his cheeks.

* * *

End Red Sky.


End file.
